A word on powers... and attributes
Right now, there aren't many powers. By the time the game is done,
most of the Amber game powers will be available in some form or
another (except Logrus, because I think Logrus is a heresy). Advancement
won't be traditional in any way in this game, either; not everyone will
advance at the same time, or with the same amount of points. Advancement
will be character- and plot-driven instead.
And what does that have to do with attributes? Plenty. Since powers are so limited at the beginning, most of you will be pouring points into your attributes.
And here is my word on attributes: I kinda-sorta despise the "four attributes." It seems wrong. Other games have six or more. And in Amber, no one ever buys anything but warfare and psyche. I don't want everyone to buy endurance and strength in this game, I want people to ALSO buy endurance and strength.
With all of that in mind, I've drawn some parallels between the traditional four attributes with the Shadowrun attributes. This means I'm still using the four regular attributes of Amber, I just want it to be seen how these things weigh differently. Everything done herein is to help the attributes weight accordingly. Warfare is only a minor part of your bad-assedness in this game.
Shadowrun Attributes vs. This Game's Attributes
| Shadowrun | Amber |
| charisma | stuff |
| body | endurance |
| intelligence | the player's intelligence + the gm's help |
| quickness | warfare |
| willpower | psyche |
| strength | strength |
| Combat Pool Roll for reaction, (Quickness + Intelligence + Willpower, divided by 2), then test for skill, then test for strength, then test for body | Being a Bad Ass with a Sword Stuff + Warfare determines reaction; warfare and skill determine if you touch your opponent, strength determines how hard you touch him, and (his) endurance determines if you kill him or not |
Mechanics: Not just a power, the power-- sorcery in the FFfH universe is about the only thing going. Once you pay the initial points, you have access to half of the points you poured into your attributes as a magic pool. Once you have your magic pool figured, you may divide it up into the four schools of magic. It's like having a cup of water, pouring it into several smaller cups, and coloring each cup (like you'd do for Easter eggs). You are stuck with the amounts of water you have for each of these colors-- an abundance of yellow is going to lead to a lot of yellow Easter eggs, for example, and you may only be able to eek out one or two red eggs at best...
Now, how does it actually work? Say you have a 40 point magic pool. Sounds good, doesn't it? But then what?
Once you have allocated those points into a discipline of magic, you must henceforth decide to put them into spells. It's like saying: "I reserve this red coloring for these eggs." You even have the eggs in your colored water. All you need to do to cast the spell is pop the egg out of the water (use a lynchpin)-- the point being that you've already done the work, now you just need to show it off. The point is, you can't just up and choose to make these eggs a different color; you've already dedicated this to being a red egg.
Furthermore, now that you've put all your red eggs on the table, you don't have any more red coloring for a while. You're going to have to wait until you can fill up your red cup again-- your magic pool refreshes at a rate based on your endurance. High endurance=faster refreshing. Amber level endurance refreshes in about a day. An endurance of 50 refreshes in about an hour.
Cost: 15 points
So, you, with your 40 points of magic, and you've decided they're all red, have 8 spells available. That's eight eggs, each one bigger than the last. If you only had one egg, it would be a little robin's egg. When you have 8 eggs, you have one robin's egg, and one quail's egg, and upwards, until you have a grade A chicken egg that you get from the store. Each spell is at a different level: you have "lightning" on your littlest egg and on your biggest. Your littlest (level 1) Lightning Spell will send out some strong sparks, momentarily stunning an opponent. Your level 8 Lightning Spell will send out a bolt of lightning that will put your opponent in the hospital for some time. A emu egg sized level 13 Lightning Spell (if you had the 65 points of magic) would kill anyone of less than Amberite endurance, and might just kill a few Amberites, too.
And, when you use your eight spells of varying power, you're out, until you manage to get those spells back in order and your magic pool refreshes (based on your endurance).
Cost: Basic Sorcery, +5 pts
For an extra five points, you can take your spells, levels 1 through 8 and start doing some math. You can take your 7 and your 6 and turn those spells into one 13-level spell. Or you can take your level 7 and turn it into 7, 1 pt spells (7 baby robin eggs=your cafeteria grade chicken egg). This is the type of Sorcery for those who enjoy mathematial hijinx and for those who require more flexibility in their magic use.
Cost: Basic Sorcery, +5 pts
For an extra 5 points, you may gain access to the secondary magics, as listed on the table below, and tertiary magics, which are limited only to your imagination.
Cost: Basic Sorcery, +10 points
For ten extra points, you may now leave behind the limitations of having spells effectively "racked." Once you do the research on a spell, you may now access it any time you wish, provided you have not depleted all of the points in your magic pool (or colored egg cup). In theory, anything in your grimoire is available to you, your grimoire being your index of tried and tested spells.
This power has some necessary limitations. You will not be able to use this to add points from one discipline to another (once you're out of fire magic for the day, you're out, and you can't go borrowing from water magic). You will not be able to get a spell off faster than your warfare allows. You will not be able to use spells that you have not cast since the beginning of the game (you won't be able to use spells that you've never cast at all, for example, nor will you be able to use a spell that your character might have cast previously.
The Table of Primaries
| Element | Earth | Water | Air | Fire |
| Suit | coins | cups | swords | staves |
| Magic | body magic | mental magic | natural magic | light magic |
| Some Spells | Arrest-motion; Physical Binding; Cardiac Arrest; Healing | Mental Binding; Psyche Blast; Alter Memories; Read Minds | Lightning Bolt; Lava Flow; Alter Weather | Illusions; Far-seeing; Divination; Scrying; Spying |
Table of Secondaries
| -- | Earth Water Air Fire
Earth
Bind Demon, Destroy Demon primarily, magics affecting demons; less effective on humans and other creatures Fast Vine Growth, Poison Water Supply primarily, magics effective on plants; includes specialized use of plants (herbal magic, eg) Teleport, Seven-League Boots primarily, magics that affects movement of physical things-- includes levitation and telekinetic effects | Water
Bind Demon, Destroy Demon primarily, magics affecting demons; less effective on humans and other creatures Summon Elemental, Bind Elemental primarily, the magic that affects elementals (kin of demons) Universal Translator, Lower Veil the most mysterious of magics, it is the magic that allows for true understanding; it is the key component in traveling to other shadows, understanding other magical rules, cultures and mindsets, and communicating with alien creatures | Air Fast Vine Growth, Poison Water Supply plant magic Summon Elemental, Bind Elemental Control Horse, Summon Bird the magic that affects animals (creatures that are classified as animals include humans, and anything animate and live that is neither demon nor elemental nor plant) | Fire Teleport, Seven-League Boots the magic of movement-- includes levitation, and telekinetic effects Universal Translator, Lower Veil the most mysterious of magics, it is the magic that allows for true understanding; it is the key component in traveling to other shadows, understanding other magical rules, cultures and mindsets, and communicating with alien creatures Control Horse, Summon Bird the magic that affects animals (creatures that are classified as animals include humans, and anything animate and live that is neither demon nor elemental nor plant) |
Tertiary Spells....
Example:
combining veil magic and walking magic, one may use Cross Shadow
Barrier
Cost: 15 points
A power that allows a person to be a version of Star Trek's
replicator: you can conjure only "simple" items with this power-- items
with a simple molecular structure (ie, water) or similar structures (ie, a
granite rock with quartz flecks). Complex molecules are increasingly
difficult, and rely on the character's knowledge of the properties of the
item, how much the character has practiced, amount of conjuration time,
etc. Conjuration draws on your magic pool, and you must allocate magic
pool points to it. The magic pool
refreshes at a rate based on your
endurance.
Cost: Basic Conjuration, + 10 points
Allows for conjuration of compound materials at the lower end, and
finished products on the higher end ("ends" pertains to practice,
concentration, knowledge and magic pool-- ie, a character with knowledge
of the properties of paper, with 5 magic points to spare and about 10
minutes can conjure a notebook of paper; a character with the knowledge
and 1 magic point and 3 hours can also conjure a notebook; a character
who has never really seen paper and doesn't know how it works can throw
magic points and time around for ten years and not have a notebook). With
complex conjuration you still can't conjure things like puppies (living or
dead) or working machines, but you can, with practice, conjure gunpowder,
wine or refined oil.
Works as in the rule-book.